This Blog Will Explore Two Key Questions:
(1) Can we transfer the successful methods we developed in school learning labs (in our award-winning Math and Vocabulary-Reading Acceleration programs) into American homes? We know our software gets results. We know that in a lab setting kids get addicted to it and that we often have to tell them, "That's enough for today. Stop Working!" But parents buy learning software, not children. The question is: can we sell them learning software their children will actually use? (think that's a funny question? In a world full of edutainment programs that neither educate nor entertain we think it's about time a company asked it!)

(2) What tools and methods does research- and our successful lab experience- show to be crucial to motivating children to "fall in love with practice" and to ensuring that their practice time isn't wasted?

Key tools you'll see explained, tracked, critiqued, defended: the Learning Zones Placement games; the TargetScore! Motivation & Mastery System; TargetScore! Progress Trackers (printable paper trackers); Perfect Practice Vocabulary and Math Learning Paths; and our claim that "40 words a week can change a child's life!"

Thursday, Jan 24, 2008

How to Help Kids "Fall in Love with Practice"

Thursday, Jan 24, 2008 05:31

Why do most educational software games remain unused after only one or two tries? Most are missing some or all of the 6 things researchers say you need to help kids "fall in love with practice": 1. Clear Learning Goals ("clear" means defined, visually or numerically) 2. Ability-Appropriate Goals (games that are too easy bore us; too hard, frustrate us); 3. Clear, Instant Feedback (on progress toward goals) 4. A Next-Step Goal always waiting (the brain rewards us for learning new things) 5. Drama & Suspense: time-pressure, increasing level of difficulty: 'Will I make it... before time runs out?! ... before the little monsters eat me?!' 6. Real-World Power: kids know the difference between skills that only help them in video games and skills that make them stronger in the real world. Here's how the TargetScore! Motivation & Mastery System matches up to the six elements: 1. Clear Goals: TargetScore! 4-Game Learning Path; 2. Ability-Appropriate Goals: Learning Zones Placement game (starts every student in a customized learning zone); 3. Clear, instant feedback: TargetScore animated Score Cards; 4. Next-Step goals (so when they hit one Target they can use the skills they've just mastered to tackle the next level) 5. Drama & Interaction: time-pressure, increasing level of difficulty: Will I make it... before time runs out?! ... before the little monsters eat me?! etc. 6. Real-World Power: TargetScore! Learning System's 3000 Core Literacy Words. Words are power. Don't believe it? Remember the study that found CEOs of Fortune 500 companies had the largest vocabularies of any profession. Words are power: power to understand, power to create, power to persuade. The TargetScore! Learning system was developed and tested under real-world conditions and designed to help kids "fall in love with practice" so they spend enough time (on the 'perfect practice' learning path) to get results.

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008

"Get in the Zone:" Learning Zones Placement

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008 05:41

The first thing players see after signing into TargetScore! Vocabulary is our Learning Zones Placement game. This "game" is actually a sophisticated Vocabulary-Research Diagnostic designed to put find everyone's individual "learning zone" in our 3000 word sequenced vocabulary list. What is the Vocabulary-Reading "Learning Zone"? The place in our 3000 word vocabulary list below which you know most of the words and above which you know very few of the words.... and, since vocabulary level equals reading comprehension, when you've found your Vocabulary Learning Zone you've also found your Reading Zone (for more about that see the reading passages in our download library). What's the Advantage of Starting "In the Zone"? Research shows that students learn and retain new words up to three times faster if they start "in the zone" than if you give them a traditional, one-size-fits-all word list (You're in sixth grade? OK, here are the sixth grade words). Click Here to See the Vocabulary-Reading Connection: Learning Zones Placement Chart 1. Already Own TargetScore! Vocabulary? The placement chart will show you how your child's Learning Zones Placement results correlate to his or her reading grade level. 2. Don't have TargetScore! yet? The chart will show you which disk in our 10-disk vocabulary series your child should begin with (each disk has 300 targeted sequenced vocabulary words).

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008

Power of Visual Goal Setting

Tuesday, Jan 22, 2008 01:34

Many learning games are like cafeterias. Children get their tray (sign-in) and enter the cafeteria to find out that the software designers have left the job of putting together a wholesome meal up to them. The menu (learning path) and portions (number of repetitions) are not laid out. So much freedom! A typical child ends up with three helpings of pie and a stomach ache. One or two times in the cafeteria and they don't return; or they come back every day and get nothing but sick from the time they spend there. The TargetScore! Learning System is different. First thing players see is a visual Learning Path that lays out a "prepared path to excellence." Our promise: If you follow this path--hitting your TargetScores along the way-- you will get stronger. As soon as children sign in and play the Learning Zones Placement game (more on that amazing tool in another post), they immediately see three things: (1) what games we want them to master; (2) the mastery TargetScores! they have to hit for each game; (3) the point of each game (Learn the Words, Earn them, Use them, Show off!: Speed & Perfection!) What happens then? They internalize the learning goals, make them their own, and fall in love with practice! Parents don't have to push their kids to do their 20 minutes 2-3 times a week. Though setting up incentives and making the printable TargetScore! Progress Trackers part of your household routine can make it even more likely that your children will rapidly increase their word power, reading power, learning power.... More about that in the next post.

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

Saturday, Jan 19, 2008

Getting Kids to Play "Games That Make Them Strong"

Saturday, Jan 19, 2008 01:32

So how do you get your kids to to actually use that vocabulary software you just bought? You could give them a talk about how vocabulary is the key to staying on grade-level in reading (after second grade). You could tell them that making sure their vocabulary "keeps up with the books" is a key to succeeding in school and on high-stakes tests like the SAT or ACT. You could tell them that modern life (with all its distractions--TV, video games, the Internet, cell phones, etc.) will make it very hard for them to "grow their vocabulary" at the rate their grandparents grew theirs. You could warn them that if they don't take steps they will most likely find themselves without the vocabulary they need to earn high enough grades and test-scores to get into their first choice college--or to do well at whatever college or career they do choose. Then you could sit back and see if they start spending an hour a day on the new software-- build a bigger vocabulary, read the great books, become captain of the debate team! But I wouldn't do it that way! In the next post I'll tell you what I say at my house...

Permalink Do you worry that TV (passive, fleeting connections; 75% images, only 25% words), the Internet (browsing, not reading), iPods (songs without lyrics), cell phones (no time to read, think, or finish one conversation), video games (please!), and all the other distractions of our Video Age might be suppressing your children's word power? Fight back with TargetScore! Vocabulary

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